that's starts right now. ♪ ♪ "fox and friends". >> steve: good morning, everybody. hurricane sandy leaving 16 people dead and plunging millions in the dark and unleashing a wave of devastation that will leave you speechless. >> gretchen: we have every angle covered for you . peter is in the beach. and todd in new york city and we have maria molina as well to bring us the latest on the weather situation. >> brian: first we will update you overnight. a massive fire burning in queens. devastating to see and no sign of being contained. 50 homes are in flames at this hour and the situation is going from bad to worse.

joining us on the phone is power authority spokesman michael. michael so far 50 homes. are firefighters working on this? >> right now facts are sketchy. we believe that the power was out in the area before the fire started and so we are not involved in the fire-fighting activitis and we don't know the cause. >> steve: i know that apparently 25 houses are destroyed so far. and 195 firefighters are working the blaze two people with minor injuries. the problem in cases like this, michael, sometimes when a fire starts, if there is flooding firefighters can't get to it and it gets oust control. >> i can't speculate on the issue of the fire. there is a lot of outages and

breezy point has been out of power for sometime. >> brian: 80 percent are without power? >> right, i think that may be an optmistic number. when it is all said and done . 80 percent without power. we had our cruc stand down between noon and 3:00 yesterday afternoon from a safety standpoint and have lined them up to be started first thing this morning. we have a process to put our transmission center back together in the substation and then work out in the neighborhoods. >> gretchen: is it main low the substation or independent streets that has power lines down? >> it is both. many of the transmission lines are out of service now . there is hardly a street on long island that doesn't have a tree down and power lines are down with thistries.

>> brian: what makes this especially challenging compared to last year's hurricane? >> the issue that the damage is more extensive than it was for irene. it will be a long time to restore power. at this point, i don't think it is a good estmaste. >> brian: your original estimate 7-10 days? >> that's right. that was too optmistic. >> steve: and any advice for people with a generator and watching this and wires down in the neighborhood? >> we'll be out patrolling and the public officials urge don't go outside and don't go near electric wires or downed wires. you don't know if it is a phone or cable wire you don't know if it is wrapped up in our wires down the line.

>> brian: when something like this happens, is it worth calling to report or should we assume that everyone is down and we will get to you when we can. >> customers should report an out age and if it goes off report it afterwards. >> gretchen: a lot of people can do that on line as well. if they have computer service. >> brian: i another question for you . in terms of water receding, the worst is over and water is getting out of there, is that what you are seeing? >> brian: that's what we are see we are looking at substations that took on water and assess the damage down there especially in nassau county. it is a welcome development to have the water receding and now we along with the civil officials will be getting in the areas. >> steve: once the sun comes

up you can get a good look on the damage. thank you. >> you're welcome . >> gretchen: incredible imagines in new york city. the water is gushing in the battery tunnel in manhattan. todd is there. >> gretchen, this is a dangerousuation. it is a ghost town. those flood waters and storm surge and tunnels, not only for cars and trucks, but subway tunnels . more than half dozen tunnels are flooded and that is causing major problems. the head of the transit authority said it is the worst disaster in the hospital of the subway system it could be four days before they get the water out . after they get the water out,

no telling how long it will be before the subway cars will be back to transporting those. millions use that for. flooding is a huge problem last night. i had a chance to get out in the middle of the storm. wading through the storm surge on frond street and those water in the businesses and homes in the city. this is absolutely terrible, the devastation. and the winds guys were so powerful they tore off the facade of an apartment building in the chelsea area. make its look like a little doll house. but those are apartments where people live . one final note to give you the sense of ingenity of new yorkers. power is out and folks were using ipads as flash lights

last night. >> thisthat is a good idea. the reason that the subways and tunnels are flooded because of the storm. >> it was barely raining in new york. >> steve: right, we'll talk to joe, the meteorologist about the storm surge. down in the battery, the old record was let's see len.2 feet. -- 11.2 feet . we broke that video. >> brian: that was from last night. >> gretchen: going to delaware, this video in to "fox and friends", this car, probably not going to be operating this morn nothing a nearby motel. no match for the atlantic ocean. we have peter doocy there now. what is the situation reet now? >> things have calmed down. here in rehob both, death

wear. businesses were ready and people chose to evacuate like the governor ordered them, to. my producer and i went around the main drag of hehob both and we saw damage . no power out as far as we could teleand around here, the most significant thing you can see is sand and junk on the boardwalk that washed up in high tide and during "fox and friends" during my live shot washed up over the dune, and into the businesses. as far as we can tell no significant damage. little bit north of here, a different story. atlantic city took a hard hit. many people in atlantic city chose not to evacuate and

chris christie called out the mayor there for testimonying -- telling people it was okay to stay and not evacuate. chris christy said it was the wrong thing to do. if things are bad in new jersey he is prepared to sign a executive order to reschedule halloween for the kids of new jersey. >> we'll go to maria molina who is looking at the weather that has come and the weather in front ofulse. a major transformer blast. this picture said it all. check out the big apple left in the dark. in the bottom that is manhattan before and after the outrage. con ed said it could be a week before the repairs are made. maria? >> good morning, good to see

you. impacts from sandy and the storm has weakened with maximum sustained winds at 90 miles per hour. and the center is 90 miles west of the philadelphia. the danger is not over. apart from the damage and flood water in new york city and down in new jersey, people will head out of doors and at some point today. there could be live wires and you can't see what is in the flood waters that can be left over. there is a weather risk. we had record high levels in battery park, new york. 13 feet high. and we are going to see the water level rise once again . we are forecasting to see the

flooding. but you will see it rise once again. so please be careful in coastal areas. strong winds forecast over 30 or 40 miles per hour . midatlantic and northeast. and chicago air and parts of west virginia dealing with blizzard conditions. we could see a foot of snow. at least a foot in west virginia and again three feet will be possible. and maximum susstained winds from sandy and moving northwest at 15 miles per hour. it has slowed down. and yesterday at 8:00 p.m. east other than time. it is a cyclone. we saw significant damage in new york city and southward . snowfall in the west part of the storm system and falling in michigan and ohio and

kentucky. gretchen. >> gretchen: thank you very much. >> steve: we should point out in new jersey, because of the storm surge and everything there, a levee has broke yen three towns are in peril. we'll have the details. >> gretchen: in the meantime, financial markets are close. that could affect the final jobs report before the election. charles payne from the fox business network coming up next. >> brian: and water rushing in the train station. that is an incredibly shot. it will take a while to go back. these fellas used capital one venture miles for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use...

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>> steve: now we are talking about the fall out from super storm sandy. at this hour a massive fire is burning in breezy point in queens, new york . 50 homes are in flames at this hour and joining us right now is channel 5 new york reporter stacey. stacey what is going on there? >> good morning, to you, steve . conscience are bad out here in breezy point. incredibly strong wind several feet of water surrounding the 50 homes on fire. we are told 200 firefighters on the scene and dozens of personnel from the nypd. this is an evacuation zone and a lot of residents opted not to evacuate. we don't have any major injuries to report. but a lot of people were

trapped in their homes. we have seen police units taking out evacuees by the truck load. nypd in scuba gear who had to suit up go house to house because of all of the water down there. we talked to two gentleman who live in this community. they had evacuate they heard what was going on. and they check it out. it is pure and utter devastation and again, the wind not making it any easier. the other concern is high tide expected to pick up in the next couple of hours. we don't know what that will do to the situation. we know that the fear fights are trying to get's handle on this and the conditions not conducive for that. steve. >> thank you very much. a great big fire and flood. gretchen over to you. >> gretchen: sandy forcing the new york stock exchange and

nasdaq to halt trading for a second day . last time it was closed was 1888 when blizzard left snow dreists four-five feet new york. >> brian: and the final jobs report before the election. charles, do you expect the numbers friday. >> there was scuttlebutt that they may be exost poned. >> brian: people can't get to work. >> we are talking about numbers for last month and the tabulation process is in full affect. we are scheduled to get the adp report. comparable to what we get from the federal government. how many people are working in this country. >> gretchen: would there be an incentive not to reulose them? >> you are asking the wrong person. >> gretchen: thank you for the laugh in all of this

devastation. >> every conspiracy theoriist would say. obviously it was 7.8 percent unemployment and numbers suggest that we were sloppy as any other match we have the establishment and household survey. they did not match and people were calling the federal government saying they lied about this. there is incentive if it was 8.4 and we learned about it after the election. >> brian: big picture question. this will cost the economy billions of dollars and insurers 20 billion at least. this is devastating hurricane. what is that for the overall economy mean? >> it is not going to be much for the over all economy. for the insurers they know occasionally they have to pay up for things like after

katrina word was we would get devastation annually . we have hundred billions in storm devastation. they have the money to back it up. more importantly to your point, the human toll and the monetary toll is insignificant. >> gretchen: we'll have to go. we'll get to the 401's later today. storm surge could mean more danger. joe breaks down the anatomy of a storm surge. >> brian: crane barely hanging on. teetering from a high rise in manhattan. a live report. it was too dangerous to bring down. how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet.

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>> steve: a levee has broken in northern new jersey across the river from new york city and flooded three towns. the conditions of motacki and little fer yecarstat near the sports arena are devastated and an official four-five feet of the water rushing in the town. crews are on rescuing people. joining us is meteorologist joe bastadi. >> thanks for having me. >> steve: starting with the levee break, this is to be expected after a gigantic storm surge. >> it was caused by storm surge rather than the heavy rains.

you will get the levees breaking. but we didn't have major rainfall in the hudson river valley and we did not have water coming down in the hudson river and that would enhanced. >> steve: pictures are devastating. tunnels are flood people are it didn't rain. it was not the rain but the pressure of the storm and purk the water in mork. >> that's right. i was on with neal and talking to shaub. 10-15 foot storm surge and we would get this happening. the nature of the storm and energy associated with the storm. each though it was spread out they call it a category. it is a power scale of the storm and bar rometric will give you the power of the storm rather than the wind speed.

>> steve: people who are worried about the storm surge. we are still having high tide and big waves. >> it will take a while to diminish. this evening's tide is regular flood tide and tomorrow getting back to turmoil because the wind went west and pushing the water out. the water keeps trying to come back in. >> steve: your father in atlantic city he was on when the eye got over. >> this is why i got mad at the hurricane center. wind came out stronger in the south rather than the north. the hurricane gust in south jerseyy coast came after the eye path. it was the woworst part of the storm. now it is getting ripped apart and becoming nontropical.

>> steve: as the sun comes up shortly and people are starting to get a look at the damage, you say get used to big storms like and you said this. >> steve: next five or 7 people. a lot of the global warming people. they peak in and give you an example. when you go back and look at 1950s when the pacific cool and would atlantic was warmed. 10 major hurricane in the eastern sea board including six in '54 and 55. hark hark hazel came up further west and this east and shot back northwest. >> steve: it was so powerful. >> it was not like it was not predictable. >> steve: absolutely. we knew about it couple of days. thank you so much. 27 minutes on the top of the hour. massive fire burning out of

the control in a neighborhood of new york city. couple hundred firemen on the scene. it is grim. and they say it was too dangerous to take down. the crane is dangling 90 stories up. we have the details live from new york city. ♪ [ female announcer ] you can always measure the growth of your children by the way they clean themselves in the bathroom. try charmin ultra strong. with a new duraclean texture, charmin ultra strong helps you get clean. plus it's four times stronger than the leading value brand. and you can use up to four times less. good news for even the biggest kids in the family. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra strong?

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>> gretchen: we begin with the latest on the top story. 200 firefighters fighting a fire in queens, new york. >> steve: joining us from the telephone is new york city counselman who represents that. good morning eric. we know that 200 firefighters are battling this thing. do we have any idea what started it? >> we know obviously hurricane had a devastating impact on breezy point. it is zone a area that mayor bloomburg urged people to evacuate from. it is a low-lying tip of the peninsula out here in queens.

many of the people for whatever reason to stay. they evacuated in hurricane irene and they decided it would not be as severe and obviously they were wrong and as a result more than 50 homes are burning at this hour. 200 fire fights new york city fire department are battling the blazes to get the fire under control before the high tide. >> gretchen: are you saying it started as result of people staying in the homes? >> i believe it started and spread quickly because the homes are together. i don't know what started the first fire but it spread quickly and there were people who stayed behind and when they did call 911, they were unable to get emergency systems and the fire truck could not get to them. there was one road in and one

road out and a fire truck is no use to a home on fire. >> brian: has there been fatalitis and injuries. >> i have two staffer that is live there and both of them are okay. one in brooklyn and one in middle village and i asked them if there were any reported fatalities. at this hour there are none. but two people with minor yours and no respects of fatalities out of breezy point at this hour. >> brian: what is the challenge. is it water pressure. >> no. the challenge is wind and close proximity of the homes. originally breezy point was a cooperative community of summer bunga lows. but in the last 10 or 15 years. people have winterizes them and make them year round. but they are still close

together. and the lowest part of the peninsula. very close together. and all you needed was one fire to start the blaze. it is awful. >> gretchen: so devastating. we are getting to the beginning of what could be the ultimate result. thank you for your time. >> brian: the impact of sandy has been through maryland, west virginia and connecticut and new york city and new jersey. new jersey towns flooded by the broken town by the levee. officials say four-five feet of the water is flooding in the manaki, fer yecarstad. chief of staff to the bergen county. this area is in your jurisdiction . when did the breach take place. >> midnight to o'clock a.m..

we have been on the scene since 2:30 in the teeterboro airport in bergen county. >> steve: the three towns affected, where were the lev levvs? were they on a major river or small. >> hackensack river and we are not sure if it was a breach of the levee or we are seeing tides that are so high and the water is coming up, and coming up. but it devastated those town in about 30 minutes. they had five-eight feet of water on the streets. >> gretchen: were these towns in zone a. were people already evacuated? >> it just came upon them. of the areas will get flooding, but not this of devastating with such

devastation and no warning. >> brian: what do the people need? >> we are in rescue mode right now. we are talking upwarpeds of 2000 people displaced from their homes. one area. we have trailer waiting for rescue and applying the boats and brought out few hundred people. we have had phenomenal cooperation from the state and fema here and national guard is come category bergen county police with the sheriff's department and emergency management and all of the municipalities in bergen are sending boats and high vehicles to go rescue those people. >> some houses are five-eight feet of water in them. did it just happen immediately that suggest a levee break.

>> within 30 minutes. every street. >> steve: people didn't have any warning. >> no, they did not. >> gretchen: jean, keeping us posted on thuation of thee towns in new jersey. >> steve: those are around the meadowland and sports complex in suburban, new york. they say it was too dangerous to take down and that crane dangling from the high rise. >> brian: see how it blew over. >> steve: heather this is a fancy building under construction and the penthouse valleyed at 115 million. >> that's right. 75 stories off of the ground and they can't get it down at this point because last night it was so windy, winds topping 95 miles per hour .

70 stories up there. we'll have to see what they can do better scure the crane. and the treats are curtained off. but that building is 10 blocks north of here. we can't get close to that because it is too dangerous. we found street easy.comand becomely documents violations at that building that is built. i want to read them off to you . mention to you that we are trying to reach the owners. but listen. [inaudible] september 22nd 2012 an accident associated with the crane and another situation back on the first of the september. crane no license and unsafe at the time. we are trying to reach the company . last evening mayor michael bloomm bloom spoke about it that the crane was inspected

on october 26th. he didn't believe that a malfunction is causing it to dangle. it has not fallen yet. we hope that that is not the situation. many of our viewers remember in 2008 there were two crane collapses in a close period of time and rumented in nine deaths. we'll make calls and see what we can find out. >> brian: very interesting that mayor bloomburg will walk it back. he said plobal no violation but only the strength of the winds. >> steve: thank you, heather. >> gretchen: this is from snow shoe, mountain west virginia a blizzard is in affect. the wind whipping at 55 miles per hour . a viewer sent us the picture

of the snow drifts you piling up . in logan county snow-covered. and we'll go to maria molina. we'll talk about flood fires and wind and nor'easter and now blizzards. >> it is such a mess. blizzard conditions in portions of the state of west virginia and high waves in the portion of the great lakes and beach erosion in illinois. we'll keep you postod that. i want to read to you a special weather statement issued by the weather service in the levee break. it is basically caused by the historic storm surge that we saw monday night in the area and it is reported by loll authorities water deep water 5-6 feet. little ferry, moonakey and south hackensack and hackensack. and additional flooding is

possible as we head to high tide from 9:30. high tide expected in lower manhattan in battery park. it was a record level water reaching 13 feet . wind gusts of 90 miles per hour in long island and landfall near atlantic city with maximum sustained winds at 80 miles per hour. the threat is not over. everyone, please stay safe from the east coast to portions of the great lakings. >> steve: thank you very much. straight ahead. switching gears, ohio one of the most important state to win in the presidential election and with one week left, it is it a tie there. who can pull ahead. we'll talk to the former secretary of state coming up next. >> brian: rasmussen had romney up two. and water rushing to the train

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>> steve: we have more incredible pictures from sandy, now the super storm. flood waters rush nothing ground zero construction site. look at that cascade of water. a record storm surge in much of lower manhattan under water on tuesday morning. this scene looks look a disaster movie. water gushing in the area where we are at in hoboken, new jersey. four feet of water built up in the water in the train station and you can see they are not open today. >> gretchen: 7 days from the

election and monster storm sandy sending president obama and mitt romney off of the cam prain trail. romney campaign cancelling events out of sensitivity to those in harm's way. romney will be in ohio later today . that state has candidates neck and neck with a week to go. joining me is former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell. and the candidates off of the campaign trail and ohio still pivotal. where do you see. >> it is a dead even race in ohio, gretchen and what has affected the romney surge has been his closing a tremendous gap that existed with women. team obama has overplayed their hand in thinking that women were only concerned about abortion rights and

constraacception when many people are worried about jobs and education of their children. they are soldiers and mothers of soldiers and wife was soldiers and they have a real about in matters like benghazi . so as that gap has closed. the race tightened to a dead even race and i think the race in ohio is going to be one or loss in the 19counties that are in the columbus media market. >> gretchen: ohio is so important. but regions within ohio is so important and it could come down to the center of the state which is columbus as you are explaining. usually the north tend to go for obama and southern part of the state for romney. so what happen in columbus? >> the changing demographics in columbus, obama won it convincingly in 2008, and

george w. bush won it in 2004 with a strong showing in the southeast. it looks as if the romney forces have secured the base in the southeast and going up in the western part of the state and same for president obama in the northeast, and so it is a battle for the center part of the state and 19 counties that make up their part of the state and it is all about the ground game. gretchen, let me say real quick. in 1976, jimmie carter won ohio by 11,200 odd votes and less than one vote for precinct. in 2004 bush won 118,000 and we would have a president carry. that is how close it is right now. >> gretchen: that's how important one vote will be. thank you for your time.

>> good to be with you, gretchen. >> gretchen: top lawmakers stepped up questions on who knew what on benghazi. judge napolitano on that next. massive chunk of atlantic city famed boardwalk simply washed away in the storm. we'll have that next. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese

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>> steve: look at that. debris flying as sandy battered atlantic city yesterday. check out the aftermath of waves crashing ashore. that is what is left of the historic boardwalk. it is now completely destroyed.

steve is there right now. steve, as the sun comes up they will try to figure out what went wrong, right? >> well, i can tell you a little what went wrong. i am standing on the atlantic boardwalk inside of somebody's house. the it came and broke in the house. big pile of boards here. we are not talking just planks but the heavy stuff. look at these two cars. it looks like a car accident. but still windy and a lot of damage and a lot of sand in the street. up to three or four feet of sand. it will be a while before the crews clear that and get to the damage to assess that . all of the heavy -- steve, you will recognize this section and somehow find the boot strength to lift it up. this is the part you will lean on to look the at the ocean and the heavy thing to the

high rise that is torn apart as well. they don't have any clue how much damage. it is too early to tabulate. >> that is so messed up. steve is live about what is left of the boardwalk. brian over to you. >> brian: more hard evidence about the obama administration's response or lack thereof to the benghazi attack. the chairman wrote the letter to president obama asking hymn a series of questions. did you pacificly direct the military to move available asset in libya to insure the safety of the american personnel in benghazi? and is and and so what did you order for libya. judge napolitano, judge, he's not getting worries . we can ask all of the questions but the president is not answering. >> he's right. he is not going to answer

until after election day. dudirect susan rice, un ambassador to the united nations to lie and mislead the american public as to the cause of this? were you aware that this being attacked? were you aware of the plea for help and were you aware that this was orchestred by a terrorist group with military precision in which the consulate was attacked could not be random act. >> brian: senator mccain said it is worse than watergate because people died. >> he is right. >> brian: magnitude of this is cover up? >> magnitude is cover up. it is horrible that ambassador stevens and three navy seals with him died. it is equally horrible that the president of the united states will not let us know what happened because it is it on the eve of a presidential election which he will

probably lose anyway. >> brian: judge napolitano, we'll talk about this again tomorrow. on the run down in the second hour. massive fire in breezy point, queens x. water rushing in the battery tunnel. we are every angle covered at the top of the hour and beyond. e to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

>> gretchen: obviously we have extreme weather to tell you about. unfortunately these two words are at the top, death and destruction. this morning in the wake of hurricane sandy, storm leaving 16 people dead, entire towns under water, buildings on fire and millions in the dark. >> brian: we have every angle of the story covered. fox news meteorologist maria molina is up again live in the extreme weather center. anna kooiman and todd starnes is live outside in new york city

where downtown has been buried. >> steve: first, the story break at this hour, sandy triggered a massive fire in the queens neighborhood of new york. also known as breezy point. at least 50 houses have burned to the ground. look at these images. joining us on the telephone is new york city councilman eric olridge who represents breezy point in that area. thank you very much for joining us this hour. we know a couple hundred firefighters are battling this blaze right now. it looks out of control. is it? >> it absolutely is out of control. total devastation. there is no other word to describe it. just to think that an entire community in the city of new york could be devastated or wiped out like this by flood and fire in the same night is just unfathomable. >> gretchen: this community just to let our viewers know, was in the so-called zone a, which was the mandatory evacuation area.

so you would presume that many people had left this area, although last hour you told us some stayed behind. but what caused the fire? do you know? >> the cause of the fire is still unknown at this hour. as you mentioned, there were so many people who, for whatever reason, decided to stay in breezy point, or stay in other parts of the rockways because they felt that they would be able to weather the storm. these are the same people that lived through hurricane irene, for instance. and they thought that was not a severe weather event and they could get through this. unfortunately, that was not the case. we know that. people stayed, they put themselves at risk and now we see this total catastrophic event in breezy point and broad channel as well. broad channel is another community adjacent to the bay and most of those homes have been wiped out. >> brian: i'm wondering how many have gas and left it on before they did sleeve how that could

reignite this fire. >> right now what we're concerned about is getting this fire under control. there are 200 personnel there. more than 200. there are three volunteer firefighters helping battle the blaze. they are on a race against the clock. the wind is kicking up. the high tide is going to rise again and people are just very concerned about the amount of destruction out there and trying it get the situation under control. this has been a storm of biblical proportions and we are just praying for the best right now. >> brian: all right. eric, thanks so much. we'll check in with you again and hopefully next time valley better news. >> steve: long island, one of the hardest hit areas, storm surges up to ten feet. now anna coy man in long beach on long island. anna, as the sun starts coming up, people are going to take a look at the damage. >> yeah, they are. emergency management is asking

everybody to stay in their homes. none of the roads are open and they don't plan on opening those at all today. they say this is an absolutely crippling event from the flooding and also from everything else that hurricane sandy brought. we don't have any power on all long beach. all cell phones, power are down. some of this information that we're hearing from you all is the first time we've had any access to any news information. our hotel that we're staying in which is ocean front, the bottom floor flood and the second floor did have some water coming in there. last night we witnessed some girls across the hall, their windows blew in. right now it's been low tide and so we've seen the waters receding some. some of the roads that we have seen on the other side of the hotel, broadway, the main drag, actually doesn't have hardly any water in it. it's just sand and gunk and all that. a lot of cars, however, that

were there did just simply float away and we're worried about our own crew truck as well. i can tell you that there is no sewer here. there is no water services as well. also emergency management telling us that nassau county is getting federal money and they do plan on executing evacuation for the people who chose to ride out the storm. back to you. >> brian: is it your understanding that you could get out of there if you can? have the roads been cleared to the point you can drive through them? >> no. no, we can't. the roads are closed. they say they don't plan on opening those at all today. we aren't sure if they're talking about doing water rescues or what type of evacuations. communication has been awful. we do know that the three bridges, however, are intact. not that they're open for driving on, but they did survive the storm. >> steve: that is a terrible

state of emergency throughout much of the new york city metropolitan area. thank you. >> gretchen: breath taking video out of new york city and lower manhattan. water pouring into the brooklyn battery tunnel. these are images there. the widespread flooding leaving cars submerged literally under water. todd starnes joins us now live with the latest on the dire situation here in manhattan. good morning. >> good morning. that nearly 14-foot storm surge filled up some of those tunnels like a bathtub. two of the tunnels, battery tunnel and queens midtown tunnel, are submerged. we also understand that seven subway tunnels all running under the east river have also been submerged with flood waters and that's a big problem. the reason why, those tunnels carried subway cars, commuters coming into the city, nearly 7 million people take those subways to work. right now the subway system shut down. authorities are telling us that it could be as long as four days before they get the water out of

the tunnels and then there is no telling how long the subway cars will be able to resume service. there is another interesting story. it's about the wind. they did some significant damage across the city. one particularly interesting sight is over in chelsea. that's where the winds sheared off the facade of an apartment building. we understand from police that the individuals living inside were actually tourists. none were injured. one firefighter suffered minor injuries as a result of this facade coming off this four story building in chelsea. back to you guys. >> gretchen: todd starnes live for us in new york city. huge mess. >> steve: now a fox news alert. there are reports that hundreds of people are being evacuated in northern new jersey, just across the river from us right now because of a broken levee on the hacken sack river. we're told that four to five perhaps eight feet of water have devastated the towns of munaki,

carlstad and others. crews are rushing to rescue people, estimated to be 1,000 people involved, including people who were living inside of their mobile homes. they're being plucked off the roofs their mobile home by members of the police and fire and ambulance corps. desperate state of emergency across the river from where we're right now. >> brian: and you think about this, we have new york, new jersey. but maryland has been hit hard, pennsylvania has been hit hard. people are just waking up now with the sun coming up to see how much the damage is. >> gretchen: and connecticut as well. >> brian: and connecticut. sandy wreaking havoc across new york city, including a transformer explosion and major power outages. mar why knowly in a joins us now. at least some of the water is going back, right? >> we're expecting the storm surge to improve along coastal areas. we'll be seeing high tide. that situation across northern portions of new jersey, the weather service is keeping an eye on the high tide that's

forecast between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. eastern time. so that could possibly make the situation worse. we'll also monitor that for you. otherwise rainfall totals from sandy, very impresssive, just shy of a foot across wildwood crest, delaware, another area hit very hard, over nine inches reported across portions of that state. over nine inches reported across portions of the state of virginia and sandy is producing more rainfall across new jersey, maryland, delaware, even in through portions of north carolina and on the back end of the storm system, we have very chilly air that's actually switching that rain over to snow. as far north as portions of michigan, through ohio, eastern kentucky, portions of north carolina and one state that will be hit very hard by the snow is west virginia where two to three feet of snow are forecast, especially along some of the higher elevations. you factor in the wind from sandy and blizzard conditions are currently occurring with white out conditions.

a very dangerous situation ongoing now as well because of the snow across west virginia. current wind gusts strong at the airports in new york, 46 miles per hour. winds, 43 in harrisburg. the center is 90 miles west of philadelphia. across the great lakes, strong winds over 40 miles per hour forecheck, detroit, cleveland. places very far away from the center of sandy. so looking at strong winds from chicago to the new york city area. incredible stuff. massive storm system. and those winds are kicking up the surf across the great lakes. reports of 20 to 25-foot waves. that will likely cause possible beach erosion across that area. otherwise for today, we're expecting more coastal flooding across coastal areas. it will slowly get better burks we are expecting another high tide across the battery, new york area. we'll keep an eye on that. not forecast to be as bad as yesterday, but be safe if you

live along coastal areas. strong winds and blizzard conditions with feet of snow possible across west virginia. the current track for sandy is that eventually it will make its track or turn toward the right and move northward into portion of canada. maximum sustained winds significant, 65 miles per hour near the center of the storm, moving now toward the west northwest at about 15 miles per hour. we'll continue to track this system. it's forecast to slowly weaken over the next several days. but it will linger. so will the wind, so will the rain and showers across the northeast and the great lakes. >> steve: all right. thank you very much. when you talk about how the wind is lingering, that will be a problem for the guys in the electric recovery crews. can't go up in a bucket truck if the winds are going 30, 40 miles an hour. right now they're estimated that at least 6.2 million people do not have electricity this morning. that number could be as high as ten million. so far the death toll stands at 16. at least six here in the new york city area. >> brian: they estimated

50 million were affected. both candidates are off the trail. mitt romney may show up as close as new jersey. >> gretchen: the president says he needs four more years to fix the economy. what has he accomplished over the first four years? we will take a closer look. charles gasparino from the "fox business" network with startling numbers just ahead. >> steve: and then a daring rescue after more than a dozen people on a replica ship made for a movie were stranded at sea. one of the brave heros who rescued 14 of those crew members will join us live bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race.

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say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. >> steve: we've got a fox business alert. sandy, the super storm, forcing the new york stock exchange and nasdaq to halt trading for a second day. that's unprecedented. the last time the stock exchangeses closed for two consecutive days was in 1888

when a blizzard left snow drifts as high as 40 feet in the street. that's going to slow things down. meanwhile, there is one week until the presidential election. this is a tuesday. it's next tuesday. the economy still number one issue. president obama says he needs four more years to fix it. question is, what has he done in the first four years? fox business senior correspondent charles gasparino joins us to take a look at the president's economic i.q. >> i would say this, he was handed a really bad situation, but if you really kind of break down what he did, you definitely could say he made the bad situation worse. i mean, let me tell you something, during the financial crisis, i was one of the main reporters covering that. what i liked about candidate obama was cool, calm, collected as opposed to john mccain who wasn't. he seemed to understand the basic issues about the economy and then all of a sudden he gets in office and does something really absurd. he pushes my view, the real

mistake for this guy. this is where he fails. gets an f. he's staring in the teeth of very high unemployment. obviously stimulus plan, at least didn't work as well as he thought it would be and what does he do? he does health care. >> steve: that's right. >> that's a drag on the economy, even his supporters, larry fink who runs black rock, supported barak obama, he will tell you that's problem. >> steve: that's one the reasons obamacare is still unpopular. let's look at this president by the numbers. when the president took office back in 2008, gallon of gas was 1.85. screen right, it now averages 3.85. >> some of that's not totally his fault. interest rates have an issue here. believe it or not, 'cause oil is traded in the commodities market, yet where is the drilling? that can help. >> steve: look what's happened with natural gas. the prices are so low because there has been expansion. >> right. he doesn't understand that part. that i think factors in his economic i.q. or at the very least, he might be just so much

of a progressive when it comes to green energy or an advocate that he is ignoring this. >> steve: the poverty rate in 2008 was 12.5%. it is now 15%. the number of bank failures in 2008, we had 25. >> that is not his fault. >> steve: and now we have 92. >> that is not his fault. >> steve: why? >> because he inherited the bank -- all that stuff, you can really say -- >> steve: but if the economy was roaring, you wouldn't have that, would you? >> i don't know. i think a is a more difficult case to make because he inherited the bank crisis. the rest of the stuff, fair game. he fails. >> steve: when you look at food stamps, we had been spending 71 billion. now currently we're opinioning 71 billion. it had been 34 billion. >> that's an f. >> steve: it is an f. charles, we always thank you for stopping by on this awfully busy tuesday. straight ahead, what kinds of impact will super storm sandy have on the presidential election? how the campaigns are responding, what they're going to do today. that's coming up next.

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>> steve: a week from today, next tuesday, we vote in the presidential election. but monster storm sandy sending both president obama and mitt romney off the campaign trail. the president staying at the white house yesterday to monitor sandy's impact. he's canceled plans to attend a rally today in green bay, wisconsin. the romney campaign also canceling all of its official events through today. quote, out of sensitivity to those in harm's way. romney plans to hold a storm

relief event later today in the swing state of ohio. brian? >> brian: hurricane sandy damage not limited to the shores. the storm took out this replica ship sailing off the coast of north carolina. >> gretchen: 16 people on the boat abandoned ship sunday night had it started to sink. 14 of them were rescued. the 15th was found dead and the 16th, the captain, is still missing. joining us live, one of the rescue swimmers who helped save the passenger, randy. good morning to you. >> good morning, ma'am. how are you doing is this. >> gretchen: just fine. take us through this heroic ehave not of trying to rescue these people as the boat is sinking. >> it's one of those days you don't get very often. called out there and hopefully the guys are in rafts. early in the morning. the first guy was floating by himself and then as we picked him up, we moved to the rafts.

>> brian: you're in a chopper. you spot one in the water. then you dropping, as we're watching the video, you drop down the mini deck, they get on, you pull them up? >> yeah. they have the hoist right there. you can basically hook them up, unhook, and then swim to the survivors. >> brian: how did you get word that they were out there and how hard is it to pick up a human being in waters like that? >> a little more difficult with waves that big at times up to 36 seas. we got the call. they had made contact with our sector down here. saying they were taking on water and need our help. >> gretchen: you've been with the coast guard for 14 years. you've been a rescue swimmer for 13 of those years. you trained for this kind of thing. but when you're actually doing it, how is it different from

when you're training? >> it's a little bit different. all of the training comes through usually. the weather doesn't make that big of a difference. >> brian: they were on this 1962 replica ship. did it make you wonder what they were doing, what they were thinking because we all knew about the weather reports? >> kind of did. whether they'd -- i'm sure they knew where the storm was and having a wooden ship, they got to think twice to start sailing through a hurricane. i don't know what they expected to do. didn't get chance to talk to anybody else. >> gretchen: at what point do you stop looking for the captain who is still mittsing at this point? you were out there while there was still daylight? >> i believe they're going to continue searching this morning. not much you can do after 24 hours and especially overnight with waves that big. >> gretchen: there is a picture of the captain, 63-year-old

robin. >> brian: out of the five people you saved, two were girls and two males in their 40s and one elderly man. good job. thank you for joining us and talking about it. >> thank you. have a good day. >> gretchen: wow. fascinating job that you don't know people did on a daily basis. >> brian: you get that call. let's save a replica ship. you're in trouble because you're at risk because the chopper pilot has to sit there hovering as you drop down that line and save them. next on this rundown, something entirely different, the very latest on the massive fire burning that at least 50 homes in queens. they're attached houses. no word if they have it under control. we hope to find out shortly. >> gretchen: then an incredible sight. a crane collapses from dozens of stories up in manhattan. why was it left there during a hurricane? this is video. watch that thing coming down. >> brian: that's where it hangs at this very hour [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?

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e-trade pro is so usable you'll actually use it. and our apps are the ultimate in mobile investing. become a better investor at e-trade. >> steve: half past the top of the hour. brand-new video from seaside heights, new jersey. take a look at these waves. they recede -- they are receding and taking everything with them, as you can see in those images. the wind so powerful there, they

tore down street signs and took down power lines. but the biggest story at this hour is sandy triggering a massive fire burning out of control in the breezy point neighborhood of queens, new york. at least 50 houses have burned to the ground and joining us right now from the scene is channel 5 reporter in new york, stacy. we had somebody on a little while ago, new york city councilman said it is out of control there. >> yeah. utter devastation here. that's how we're told from people who have been back where those houses were burned. 50 burned to the ground. a couple just walked by here a few minutes ago. i said to them, was your house okay? they said no one's house is okay. but in addition to those homes that have burned, this entire little island is flooded with up to four, five feet of water, we're told. that's been a challenge for firefighters working to get this out. we're told the few homes are still smoldererring. they are still trying to extinguish a few of the homes. the good news at this point,

they still only have two minor injuries to report miraculously in all of this. keep in mind, they have yet to go door to door to the homes that have burned. so they don't know what they're going to find when they do that. this was an evacuation zone, but like in many of the evacuation zones across the new york area, not everyone decided to leave. so this morning, we saw trucks and trucks of people being driven out of here who were evacuated by first responders. we saw police officers wearing scuba suits for the water going door to do. so the sun is just coming up. we have no idea what we're going to see when weigh eventually get back there. by all accounts right now, it is not looking good. back to you guys in the studio. >> steve: grim indeed. thank you very much. a lot of people left their houses yesterday. they thought they might get a little water damage. they weren't expecting them to burn down. >> gretchen: our coverage continues now with jerry sullivan. he owns a home in that neighborhood in breezy point and

this hour he has no idea if his home is still standing. good morning to you, jerry. >> good morning. >> gretchen: thank you for joining us. i know you're watching this from afar. you were one of those who listened to the experts and got out of the neighborhood, right? >> yes. and also i learned yesterday, we returned back to rockaway and i work for the councilman and we tried to get people president obama leave and they didn't heed the warnings and they stayed behind and that's my concern right now and it's the concern of everybody from the community is the safety of our friends and family that they didn't want to leave. >> steve: absolutely. we had the councilman on a little while ago. he said in that particular neighborhood, the houses were real close to each other. >> brian: they were attached, i think. >> steve: yeah. one right after another, like box cars. do we have any idea what caused the fire? >> i think some of the transformers on top of the towers, some of the wires may have hit the water would have

started the fires. but with the heavy winds and lack of any first responders due to the flooding, the fire just spread very quickly in different areas. i myself stayed up very late. i just woke up a little while ago to follow people on different social media sites to try and see where they were and ha they were doing. a friend of mine reported probably about 2:00 o'clock in the morning, the house one of the ones that burned. >> brian: describe the neighborhood. >> it's basically a community of single family homes. the homes are separated in some cases by as little as five feet, some places maybe 20 feet. houses very close together. most of the structures, all of the structures are wood frame structures. any type of accelerant or flame that would hit the house would cause it to burn.

>> gretchen: so jerry, what about your home? >> right now last night when they were talking about the flooding, i was verned. i'm pretty much in the middle of the peninsula there in breezy point. and i just was expecting i'd get water like the first floor. i wasn't too concerned about it. but now with devastation they're talking about, to be honest with you, at least i am concerned about is my home. i'm more concerned about making sure that the people that were left behind or stayed behind can get on some buss and make their way to the evacuation center, hillside high school. i'm on my way there right now. if any of my friends can hear me, please, go to hillside high school. don't stay any longer. there is another high tide in a couple of hours. we'll get you and bring you someplace. >> steve: that's right. >> brian: good point. high tide in another couple hours. could be dealing with another wave. jerry, thanks so much. we'll check in with you again.

appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> steve: we're sorry. >> brian: another developing story, the crew said the crane was too dangerous to take down. but as you can see in this amateur video, sandy took it down for them yesterday around 2:00 o'clock. now it's dangling from a high-rise here in manhattan. 65 stories above the ground. joining us now with the very latest, heather nower. does it look stable to you? >> not at all. if you walk by this thing, a lot of folks have been reaching out to us to tell us just how dangerous it looks and that's exactly why the streets in that area have been basically cordoned off and so many residents of that area have been forced to evacuate, because this thing looks so darn dangerous. brian, we all remember the story a few years ago in 2008, there were two separate crane accidents in the new york city area. that is where eight people died as a result of that. so this is a very dangerous situation. inspectors and engineers are expected to try to climb up to the top of that building today

to assess the damage and just how risky this is. yesterday they were prevented from doing too much threw and that's because the wind gusts reached up to 95 miles per hour. certainly that made a dangerous situation even more dangerous. i just talked to maria molina, she said wind gusts today in this area are expected to be between 25 and 40 miles per hour. so hopefully they can get a crew threw to take a look at those and maybe there is some way they can try to tie this off. that, i don't know. mayor bloomberg yesterday talked a little about the situation, said that crane was nonresponsived on october 26, said it seemed to be safe at that time. he said he doesn't believe that any sort of malfunction of that crane has caused this partial collapse. but we just don't know. i've got a list of some violations against that building and against that building's owner. it is under construction. they started building it about two years ago. i've been trying to reach the owner of that company, called ex tel corporation.

the majority shareholder is the government of abu dhabi. they have not returned my calls yet. we'll stay on top of it to talk to them a little about these elimination views to see if they're significant or maybe something much more minor. we'll keep watching this situation because it is a dangerous one. a lot of people live if this area and are certainly affected by that. that latest video coming out just amazing. makes you nervous to watch it. >> brian: heather, they called the global billionaire club. it's a $1.5 billion building and if you want to own one, a whole floor, 90 million each. >> pretty pricey. >> brian: it would be a good time -- i can't believe they couldn't afford the money to take the crane down when you have that advance notice. >> steve: thank you very much. that's just it, they newt storm was coming for a day or two. why didn't they lower the boom or tie it off? >> gretchen: so many people were displaced as a result of that. sandy is spawning snow in west virginia. several inches piled up in flat top of the most of the state under a blizzard warning now.

>> across portion of michigan, ohio, down in through north carolina and one of the hard insist hit areas is west virginia that. is where we have the blizzard warnings. we want to bring you that new video to the fox news room from snow shoe mountain where we've actually have a blizzard warning in effect. about 16 inches of snowfall recorded out there and again, that is associated with the storm sandy. the wind whipping at 55 miles per hour. so you factor in the wind through the snowfall, that's why you have the blizzard conditions and those warnings in effect. we also have a picture that a viewer from beckly, west virginia sent us. basically snow drifts piling up outside their home and also in logan mingle county. the roads covered with several inches of snowfall. so slippery roads will be an issue out here across portions of the state. please be safe.

otherwise sandy also producing more rain today across parts of the state of pennsylvania. eastern portion of ohio, down in through maryland, virginia, reports of over nine inches of rain across portion of virginia and maryland.

>> brian: this is water gushing in the water tunnel. last night. cars are floating in the street. some in 14 feet of water.

we now head to that very place, lower manhattan. joining us now with the latest, robert gray. robert, i sense that this storm not over for you in the area where you're standing. >> yeah. hi, brian. i'm having a little difficulty hearing you, but we're definitely seeing the weather whipping up, throwing everything around. we have video, i believe, of the helen tunnel flooding last night, all the bridges and items into obviously out of manhattan were closed off last night. we've had the lincoln tunnel reopen this morning. but cars submerged in the water, flooding here in the streets of manhattan. we should also note still no power to much of the island, to the southern part. other parts of the region as well. in new jersey just across the way behind me across the hudson, conspicuous by its absence, lights and power as well. here in manhattan as well, 17 and state street, you're not seeing any lights on there.

a couple in the other buildings. normally you would see many of the lights on. but not much there. you see the sandbags here left over from last night. they were moved from other areas where actually right at the southern tip of manhattan. battery park. standing here with new york harbor. not only is the wind kicking the waves up a bit, but the current is going the opposite direction from yesterday. it's already been flooding over the seawall a little bit. you can see this huge tree that was basically this branch was snapped off of the top of a tree just over there. and has come down. we've got a little flooding. 90 minutes away from high tide, expecting more water here from the lower manhattan area. back to you in the studio. >> brian: 90 minutes from high tide and it's already coming over. wow. thank you very much. we'll check in with you guys later. let's go over to gretch ton talk about people that have been hurt already. >> gretchen: millions impacted by the storm. burr could it make a direct hit on your insurance?

now we find out what we need to know. so many people will be in this situation, if they even have a home left or if they have anything to go home to at all. you say get in touch with the insurance company asap? >> the sooner the better. if you have extension damage, they need to know right away. if your home has been totally destroyed and you had a evacuate, obviously they need to know that so they can prioritize because they have a lot of homes to get to. give them the information, give them your contact information so they can get to you. give them a phone number. >> gretchen: know what your policy says because you're going to explain that most of them don't include flood insurance. >> right. typical policy would include wind driven damage. not floods. that's something separate. you would have had to bought that long in advance. something to think about for next time, because fewer than one fifth of homeowners actually have flood insurance, but four out of five natural disasters involve flooding of some sort. so just an fyi for next time, go to floodsmart.gov to get it.

>> gretchen: know you're deductible. >> the stated policy is 500 or $1,000. in some states, 19 states including all of these affected by the storm, connecticut, massachusetts, rhode island, virginia, insurance companies are allowed to have a special hurricane deductible that applies only to hurricane damage and one to 5% of the insured value of the home. so if you have a $200,000 insurance policy and you've got a 2% hurricane deductible, you'll be responsible for $4,000 out of pocket costs before the insurance actually kicks in. so it's a replacement value versus a standard amount of 500 or $1,000. applies to those homes on the coast. we generally one to five of the insuring value. some places it might be even higher than that. >> gretchen: you need to document all your losses, take photos and save receipts. >> that goes without saying. picture, video for the adjustor. so you've got your back up and substantiate losses. receipts if to do buy a pump to bail out your cellar or basement. you better have receipts to back

it up. >> gretchen: lot of good information given. thanks very much. breaking news in new jersey where a levee has broken, flooding three towns. governor chris christie joins us at the top of the hour. and storm will have a big effect on the economy. jobs are still the number one concern. up next, three companies still hiring today. i choose date number 2! whooo! [ sigh of relf ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. because helps you keep doing what you love. no wonder it's america's #1 selling pain reliever. you took action, you took advil®. and we thank you. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid.®. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight,

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>> steve: we've got incredible pictures to show you from sandy. look at that. flood waters gushing into the unground zero construction site. a record sister-in-law left much of lower manhattan under water this morning. and this looks like a scene from a disaster movie. water gushing into the path

train station in hoboken, new jersey, that links new jersey to new york. officials say they saw up to four feet of water build up at the station. it is not open today. neither is la guardia airport or jfk. >> brian: hurricane sandy being called one of the top ten most expensive hurricanes in u.s. history. early estimates suggest it could cost the insurance industry more than $20 billion. joining us now to explain the economic fallout, cheryl casone from the "fox business" network. we'll talk about jobs. but first talk about this. >> i want to talk about what the economy is going to look like in the effect of hurricane sandy. fox business getting ex klaussive numbers. this is the top estimator of the economic impact of storms. they're telling fox business this is most likely to be more expensive than hurricane andrew. today's dollars, the economic impact of andrew, $41 billion. we're looking at much more than that, according to the source. we'll have the vice president on fox later today. they have been going through kind of taking a look at what's

going to happen here. you have got $88 billion in homes. 284,000 homes. seven states, $80 billion in property that could have been affected as the sun comes up today, this is when the insurance companies get on the ground and start to look around, try to figure out what's going on of the at this point, the estimates for overall economic impact, think about the markets being closed for two days. think about what's happening at the airports. think about the loss of revenues, large businesses, small business, all of that. you've got 25% of the nation's population in this part of the country. >> brian: right and commercial real estate as well as refiners. >> airlines. we'll have to look at the shippers, fed-ex, ups. all of these sectors are going to be affected. look, the insurance industry, it's a $500 billion industry. they'll be covered if you have insurance. >> brian: fema comes in and your insurers come in. some companies you might be able to capitalize on to get employed. >> i want to get to these companies because they'll have a

virtual job fair tomorrow, halloween. these are -- they're look for veterans and especially disabled veterans. i really wanted to get these out today. three companies, first is comcast. they're looking for about 700 veterans. so far they've hired in 2012. 200 open positions now. a lot you can work from home. so far they have been looking in their veterans initiative to hire, again, disabled veterans. virtual job fair. participate from home. another company, they do call center, customer service. you can also do this from home as well. they help companies manage the back end operations. so if you have to -- like a sales question, customer service, et cetera. 2500 jobs by the end of the year. also participating in this virtual job fair. >> brian: you can find out more, including the third one, wells fargo. ffjobhunt at fox news.com. cheryl casone, thanks so much. four minutes before the top of the hour. group, aarp, supposed to defend

our nation's seniors in an unpartisan way. you got one problem with that. the group campaigned in favor of obamacare. when most seniors said no. they said yes. the fallout so bad it's even attracting some celebrity attention. chuck woolery here, top of the hour. then, the very latest on the fire burning at least 50 homes right now. we have a report and governor christie live. don't go away [ female announcer ] i found the best cafe in the world. ♪ nespresso. where there's a coffee to match my every mood. ♪

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it is october 30, 2012. hurricane sandy leaving at least 16 people dead this morning. more than 5 million people still in the dark and unleashing a wave of devastation that is only going to get wors here is the very latest. massive fire burning in breezy point, queen, new york. at least 50 homes have burned to the ground. lower manhattan where water is pouring into the brooklyn battery tunnel. leaving cars under 14 feet of water there. new jersey, 50 feet of the boardwalk in atlantic city found a block away from where it stood. crews said this crane was too dangerous to take down in manhattan. as you can see in this amateur video, watch this, sandy did it for them. now it's dangling 65 stories above the ground in new york

city. >> steve: monster storm sandy leaving widespread damage across new york and new jersey. in point pleasant beach, new jersey, that's one of the hardest hit areas, we haven't heard from rick leventhal yet this morning. and he joins us live. rick, last night gigantic roars coming in to point pleasant. how are things this morning as the sun comes up? >> swamped this beach communities. we were getting pounded in our hotel, the white sands, thank them very much for their hospitality 'cause they kept the place open and gave us lamps and rode out the storm with us. there's a lot of sand on philadelphia area. you can see some of the localized flooding there. some streets still under water near point pleasant. take a look at ocean avenue. down this way, mike. ocean avenue was part of the ocean. there is a couple of feet of sand in spots. it's an absolute mess. suv, heavy trucks could get through, but certainly vehicles would have a really tough time. there is a lot of debris on the

road. swing around this way, mike. pieces of dock, pieces of houses. you see the parking meters here that are a couple feet deep in sand? some of these houses on the beach lost the walls that faced the ocean. there is beach inside these beach front homes. looking north now, the large trucks down there doing some rescues and assistance with some of the heavy vehicles up and down the atlantic coast here in new jersey. you see dumpster in the middle of the street. a loft debris. it's a virtual waste land. no power. certainly no hard line phone service. cells are difficult. people here have an amazing amount of clean-up to do. >> steve: that's an understatement. rick listen at all from point pleasant beach. let's go to ewing, new jersey be, and the governor of new jersey, chris christie joins us live. good morning to you, governor. >> good morning. >> steve: we just saw the pictures. you've got a loft cleaning up to do in new jersey.

>> listen, this has been a devastating storm. as bad as everybody projected it would be here in new jersey, new jersey probably took it worse than any other state. it made landfall here in new jersey and our jersey shore is devastated. we have almost no power in the city of newark because of the tidal surge up the bays that took out five different electrical substations. 2.4 million households in new jersey without any power today. we have a berm overwhelmed. we're doing urban search and rescue for hundreds of people in that town that's been flooded. urban search and rescue in sarahville, middlesex county because of the storm. this is really something. >> brian: are you very concerned about high tide today? do you believe the worst is over? >> i believe the worst is overment we're keeping an eye on high tide today, but we do believe the worst is overment i'm hoping to be able to get up into the helicopters this afternoon to tour the jersey

shore and up in the northern part of the state to see for myself exactly what we're dealing with. right now we're still dealing with 30 to 50 mile-an-hour winds that will not allow me to go up in the helicopters, at least this morning. >> gretchen: what can you tell us about atlantic city, because i know that was, along with cape may, sort of the heart of where the storm cape in and you had said, look, i'm warning everybody there, get out. the mayor there had sort of a different message. >> yeah. listen, my job as governor, first and foremost is to protect the health and safety of the people of this state. and that's why i ordered an evacuation of the barrier islands, including atlantic city, well ahead of the arrival of the storm. i'm disappointed that that order wasn't completely complied with and i have great sympathy and concern for the folks folks whoe still trapped in atlantic city. we're in the midst of doing search and rescue right now. we've rescued a number of folks already this morning and we'll continue to do that all day today. >> steve: over the last couple of months, you have appeared throughout the country,

governor, on behalf of mitt romney talking him up for president of the united states. i know he and the president off the campaign trail today, although we hear that perhaps he's going to -- mr. romney may do some storm-related events. is there any possibility that governor romney may go to new jersey to tour some of the damage with you? >> i have no idea, nor am i the least bit concerned or interested. i've got a job to do here in new jersey that's much bigger than presidential politics and i could care less about any of that stuff. i have a job to do. i've got 2.4 million people out of power. i've got devastation on the shore. i've got floods in the northern part of my state. if you think right now i give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me. >> brian: i got to ask you, do you have enough firefighters and rescue people? are you asking for help from other states at this point if people are watching electric a state that's not affected, can they -- is there a place for them to go if they have the skills you need? >> sure.

we are getting a lot of help. governor daniels from indiana sent us 22 fully staffed ambulances to help us move folks out of hospitals. they needed to be evacuated. i can't thank him enough. governor walker provided assistance to us as well. if there is someone who wants to volunteer to help, we have a line set up, 1-800-jersey 7 if you want to volunteer to help. we can certainly use your help. call that hot line. we have people there to coordinate that. >> steve: what can you tell us -- you touched on it a moment ago, about how along the hackensack river, it looks like there was a levee break or something like that affecting up to 1,000 people. it impacted a mobile home park, people were standing on the tops 6 their mobile homes. what else can you tell us about what happened up there? >> there is no levee there. it's just a natural berm that held back water from the river. what happened was, because of the tidal surge into the bay up

in the northern part of the state, that surge caused the surge of water into the hackensack river which caused it to overcome that natural berm. that's what caused the flooding. >> steve: also i understand -- >> we are in the midst of urban search and rescue. we've saved, started last night, we're continuing today. saved hundreds of people already and had them sheltered at other places, safe places. so we're in the midst of doing that. we'll get it done and we'll save those folks and we hope to have no loss of life. >> gretchen: because we heard there were a lot of folks in that area who were literally on top of their mobile homes waiting for people to come and swoop them out because it came in so fast. >> yes, it did. it was totally unexpected. it came from that tidal surge up the coast into newark bay and rariton bay and caused a great deal of water to be thrown into the system unexpectedly and quickly. but all those people who were on top of the mobile homes or

second floor of their homes, they either have been rescued or in the process of being rescued now. we have our urban search and rescue teams there. they're moving as quickly as they can as safely as they can. >> steve: that's good news. we understand the president declared new york and new jersey disaster areas already. how does that help you? >> helps us tremendously. i spoke to the president three times yesterday. he called me for the last time at midnight last night asking what he could do. i said if you could expedite designated new jersey as a major disaster area, that that would help us to get federal money and resources in here as quickly as possible to help clean up the damage here. the president was great last night. he said he would get it done. at 2:00 a.m. i got a call from fema to answer a couple of final questions and he signed the declaration this morning. so i have to give the president great credit. he's been on the phone with me three times in the last 4 hours. he's been very attentive and anything i've asked for, he's gotten to me. so i thank the president publicly for that. he's done, as far as i'm

concerned, a great job for new jersey. >> steve: so many people hurting. that's exactly what we want to hear. governor, we know you've got your hands full today. thank you very much for spending six minutes with us this morning. >> listen, thank you, guys. i appreciate it. hopefully i'll be able to see you soon. >> brian: thanks, governor. >> you got it. >> gretchen: coming up, the group aarp angry at a lot of seniors by campaigning in favor of the president's health care law. remember that? the backlash so bad, attracting celebrity attention. chuck woolery is here next. >> steve: check this out. super storm sandy turning roads in manhattan into rivers. this car completely under water. our live coverage of monster storm sandy continues in moments from investing for the first time...

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>> steve: more on sandy. and breath taking video out of new york city. take look at that lower manhattan, water pouring into the brooklyn battery tunnel. this is a nightmare many people who take the tunnels dread. the widespread flooding leaving cars submerged under water. todd starnes joins us live with the very latest. todd, they've got a loft pumping out to do today, don't they? >> they sure do. it's interesting because not just cars were submerged, but a couple of conn-edison utility trucks. these are the folks trying to get power turned back on here in new york city. but again, those tunnels are very important for commuters. two of them have been flooded. the other, the queens midtown tunnel. also we understand seven subway items have been flooded. and the officials tell us that it could be up to four days, four days before they get the water out. and then there is no telling how long it will take to get all of the equipment working again.

so folks can start using the subway tunnels. in the meantime, there is a lot of damage, a lot of debris around the city. one of the more bizarre incidents occurred out in chelsea. that's where the facade of a building came off during the storm. those winds just knocking the bricks right off. fortunately, no one was seriously injured in that incident. we've been told on staten island, there is significant damage. we also understand that at this hour, the national guard is helping rescue people from their flooded homes. guys. >> steve: absolutely. crazy pictures out of lower manhattan. todd, thank you very much from the streets of new york city. brian and gretch be, over to you. >> brian: hurricane sandy damage caused by the storm surge. >> gretchen: here to explain is joe with weather ballot analytics. so it's the surge, even in new york city yesterday when we were holed up here, there wasn't that much rain.

there was a loft wind, but it's the surge? >> the storm surge. you've got to understand that wind creates a lot of power and what happens is as it starts the waves start to build, the wind gets in between, the waves start pile o'clock up. but the interesting thing about this storm is the way it hit. it hit from the southeast. new england extends east. the mid atlantic coast extends south. so you have a decreasing area of ocean to put more and water into. so it has nothing to do but pile up as it comes back toward it. >> brian: joe, let's go through some of the states heavily hit. for example, tell me what maryland was dealing with. >> maryland and delaware got off pretty lucky with this type of storm. strong winds ouch the north, but then they turned to the northwest. so the storm surge never went in there. from atlantic city northward, it's a totally different type of situation. you had two to three feet, maybe four foot above normal tides in there. but they had that from time to time in delaware and maryland. and then the wind comes from the northwest. out it goes. i was watching the delaware bay

reports last night. you could see as soon as the wind shifted, the tide went out. odd blowout tide start to development so the storm surge didn't hit there. but where the winds stayed out of the east and southeast, from atlantic city northward, point pleasant and up in the new york city area and it shifted into the southeast, that's where the water kept piling up, piling up. >> brian: long island, south shore, north shore so devastated this hour, people there who have been there for generations haven't seen anything like it. >> well, you hate to say i told you so, but last week i was on saying this is what's going to happen because the storm comes in out of the east and southeast. so you're piling water back westward in there. when off regular hurricane may come from the south and there is one big tide and one big push and generally focused near and just east of the center. 38 was unbelievable in the hamptons. in 54 was real, real bad. we've seen another bad ones. this one turned to the west. there were two or three tides and you kept piling it up, piling it up. the 92 storm, the big winter

storm of 92, it left to the east and in addition, to didn't have the wind focused at the center. when you focus wind at the center of the storm or focused area, it piles the water up two, three tides in a row, the combination of that, the full moon, you had all the recipes there. i got to tell you, we start e-mailing people at fox back on sunday a week, let them know this was a real big time situation because there have been set-ups like this, except further west in the carolinas. >> brian: what are we in danger of today? >> today you just have to make sure that you're vigilant in the clean-up operation because look, the weather is going to improve today. the worst is over. and as a matter of fact, this afternoon, will be like a windy day out on the south and southeast, a few showers. back at pennsylvania and west virginia where the snow storm is going on and ohio, it's still bad. that's where the weather will be worse. but here on the eastern seaboard, we have one more tide.

the next tide this evening will be high, but it will be what i call a sort of a regular high tide. >> gretchen: people will be out of power. >> yeah. >> gretchen: it's just total mess. we got to wrap tup. thanks for your insight. coming up, it's supposed to defends our nation's senior, but one problem, the aarp backed obamacare when most seniors actually opposed it. the follow-up -- fallout so bad, it's got chuck woolery mad. >> brian: firefighters battle ago massive blaze. burning through 50 homes in queens, new york. we're live on the ground there straight ahead [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it mahelp lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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>> steve: more fallout literally. brand-new pictures from, as you can see right here, that's snow in daniels, west virginia. viewers jody and alan say sandy buried their backyard under 21 inches of snow. most of that state under a blizzard warning and areas in the mountsens are seeing up to two feet. there are some ski resorts out there that are just waiting for the high sign whether or not to open already here at the end of october. >> gretchen: now to another big developing story, the crew said the crane was too dangerous to take down. come it your screen and watch this video here. as you can see, in the video, sandy took down the crane for them yesterday afternoon. >> brian: i heard eyewitnesses heard the creeking. i guess someone was smart enough to use their iphone. we're looking at it live dangling from a high-rise which will eventually be one of the most expensive buildings in the

country. 65 stories above the ground, the crane stands. joining us live, heather nower. heather, has anything changed in 45 minutes? we were watching this since 2:00 o'clock yesterday. >> the good news is it appears the winds died down. things are change very rapidly. a short while ago i was talking to maria molina. she was saying that the wind gusts up at that level, that 65 stories above the ground, could reach somewhere between 25 and 40 miles per hour today, which is pretty significant for those inspectors and engineers that need to get threw and try to assess that situation, see if they can do something about this, maybe tie it down in some sense. but if you look at that crane, you see just how tough of a job that they have ahead of them. imagine this, over the weekend, yesterday, they were saying it was too dangerous to take down. imagine if this thing were to fall. thank goodness they were able to evacuate some of the people who live in that immediate area and close off some of the streets. we can't get anywhere close to it. we're now ten blocks south of

that area now. but thank goodness they were able to get a lot of those people out of there. i've been trying to call the owner of that building all morning long. called excel corporation. the majority shareholder is the government of abu dhabi. i can't get anyone on the phone and trying to call the new york city buildings inspectors. that phone just rings and rings and rings and rings busy at this point. or there may be a problem with power. we can't get anyone on the phone to explain to us exactly what they plan to do today to try to secure that situation and make sure that no one is injured as a result. we did find some violations for that building, including some crane-related violations earlier this year. trying to be able to put this into a little perspective for our viewers to talk about just how significant those violations may be, don't have an answer for our folks at that point, but that is something we're continuing to work on. mayor bloomberg just yesterday telling us that that crane was inspected just a few days ago.

he says it doesn't appear that there has been any sort of malfunction yet. but you look at that thing and common sense tells you that is simply dangerous. we'll keep an eye on this for you. >> steve: no kidding. the daily news in new york is reporting that records show inspectors were investigating hydraulic fuel leaks and rope defects on that thing before the 90 mile-an-hour winds. >> that's right. i'm look at this paper right here. this is from street easy that is a real estate web site. anybody can look at this. for example, it says department of building complaint, september 1, crane no permit, license certificate, unsafe, illegal. again, you got to read between the lioness that. we don't know exactly what that means. but nevertheless, it sounds like it's an area of concern. >> steve: bad situation. >> yeah. >> steve: heather nower, thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, at least 50 homes destroyed after a massive fire in new york. we're live on the ground. firefighters are battling that blaze. >> brian: and the nonpartisan group aarp angering a lot of

seniors by campaigning in favor of the president's health care law and for the most part in favor of the president. the backlash so bad, it's attracting some of the celebrities like chuck woolery who had enough and is going to talk about it [ female announcer ] a classic meatloaf recipe from stouffer's

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♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. >> steve: it was once a hurricane. now just a super storm. sandy certainly drenched the northeast, soaking new york city, one of the hardest hit regions. plus the flood surge. you can see here, fire department in new york city

boats on a rescue mission on the streets. meanwhile, in new jersey, cars also swallowed up by the flood waters and the flood surge. from the carolinas to up north, more than 6 million homes, perhaps by the end of the count, as many as 10 million without power. >> brian: fire burning in breezy point, queens. nearly 200 firefighters are at the scene and have been at the scene all night. at least 50 homes completely destroyed. >> gretchen: many evacuated residents suffered severe damages. we're joined by breezy point resident, brendan. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: i take it you evacuated from your neighborhood. what do you know about your home now? >> my home, i'm told, is fine. definitely have water damage. but the main concern i think is the other homeowners located between area -- where i'm in

brooklyn, we have not seen any news pictures or anything. i think the main concern for those people now. there are employees down there for the last 48 hours work. i'm hoping for them the best. >> steve: these images are from overnight. we haven't been able to get a camera close enough this morning. your house flooded, you said, but what about your mother's house? >> that is in the area that i'm told that did get severe fire damage. it's that general area. i don't want to say exactly. i have not been there. but i think that is the general area that took on the massive damage. >> beth: where are you getting from you information from? have you been talking to the firefighters? >> no, i'm in brooklyn. i evacuated yesterday. but there are other people that stayed and have been there. i think they're volunteering trying to just put this out. >> brian: why did you leave? 'cause you were supposed to. a lot of people didn't listen. why did you listen?

>> i don't know. my wife and four kids were any concern, so i just thought it best to go. >> gretchen: any word on how the fire actually started, brendan? was it because the lines got snapped off of homes or has anyone told you how that could have happened? >> i have no idea. everyone i called and asked -- talk being it, they just said a big red blow. one friend of mine who is a fireman was there who said the water was too high and when they finally got in, they did their best to contain it, which was the best scenario. >> steve: yeah. and i know you don't know the status of your mom's house. it's in the neighborhood where the houses -- many had burned down. what have people told you about how bad it is there? >> i believe in most areas there is waist high water is what i'm told, sporadic. that's not in one zone. but again, i am not there.

there is a lot of other people down there. they're the people there now trying to see what's left. >> gretchen: brendan, thanks so muchment it must be so difficult. you're safe, but to not know the status of your home. thanks for your time. >> all right. >> steve: sandy also being blamed for a transform explosion and major power outages. maria molina joins us now with more. new york city, it almost looked like fireworks last night. >> yeah, that's right. we saw conn-edison and we had that transformer blast. we want to roll on that video for you. check out the explosions, very impresssive video. happened as sandy plowed through manhattan. it was caught off guard. now it's in quotes, unchartered territory. the blast knock out power to about 250,000 people in lower manhattan and the cost still not known. this picture says it all, showing the city that never sleeps, left in the dark. that's lower manhattan before

and after losing power. con ed says it could take up to a week for repairs to be made. over 2 million people in the entire new york metro area are now in the dark. otherwise, thousands of flights -- regarding the airports -- granded by sandy. new york area airports closed, leaving travelers with little option but to wait. la guardia, kennedy and jfk closed until further notice. in all, over 13,000 flights canceled since the weekend because of the super storm. unfortunately, many travelers stranded by sandy and not expected to get out for days. >> steve: all right. thank you very much. we've got video to show you. new jersey and new york both had been declared national disaster areas by the president of the united states. these are some of the -- you report videos. if you've got videos or pictures to share, e-mail it to you report at fox news.com. these are coming to us from wildwood crest, new jersey. just look at the size of those waves and it looks like there is

a breach on the beach. >> brian: we were there for the tournament. that's the exact building. obviousably beautiful. >> gretchen: let's look at long branch, this is also jersey. some of the damage coming in from some of our viewers on youreport. atlantic city, we have images of the strong winds. atlantic city, of course, devastated in this storm. much of the boardwalk apparently gone at this point. >> brian: governor christie joined us earlier. he talked about how his focus is on new jersey, not presidential politics, even though the election is seven days away. >> i got a job to do here in new jersey that's much bigger than the presidential politics and i could care less about any of that stuff. i have a job to do. i've got 2.4 million people out of power. i've got devastation on the shore. i've got floods in the northern part of my state. if you think right now i give a damn about presidential politic, then you don't know me. >> steve: there you got the governor of the great state of new jersey reacting to the stories that are out there that perhaps he would escort mitt

romney throughout -- >> brian: he might be doing that. >> steve: to survey some of the damage. >> gretchen: at the same time, he thanked president obama for providing him with the federal help that he needs. he said he spoke to him three times yesterday. >> brian: with hurricane sandy capturing all the headlines this weeks can we expect the white house cover-up or what they're call ago cover-up of what happened in libya to just go away? south carolina senator lindsey graham says not on his watch. he's one of the lawmakers demanding answers. senator, as we know everybody's thoughts and prayers are with the states that were hit and devastated and we've been covering it for almost 2 1/2 hours. having said that, let's look at benghazi. i was stunned to see candy crowley, david gregory, george stephanopoulos bring up that topic brought up on their sunday shows and they cut it off, stopped it and never followed up on it. were you equally as amazed? >> i know, this, that if it happened on president bush's watch, it would be a totally different response by the main

stream networks. it's really disappointing and our hearts go out to the people who are suffering from this storm, but a week from today, we're going to pick a commander in chief. there is no merit based selection board to pick a commander in chief. citizens of this country choose who will be in charge of our national security. i cannot believe the lack of inquiry about how the consulate in libya became a death trap. i've asked questions for two weeks now by letters with senator mccain, ayotte and others o'clock tell us what you told susan rice to make her believe five days after the attack it was a result of a mob riot. release the video around the consulate to show there was no mob or riot. they promised us transparency, brian, and are covering up, they're delaying, they're denying, and they're in denial about the rise of al-qaeda. this is a big issue. unanswered. >> brian: all right. in libya in particular, we're trying to find out whose decision it was not to provide assistance as these guys tried to save the ambassador and save

themselves over the course of nine hours. this brings us to the situation room of the who do you believe made the decision to stand back, because there is a lot of people who say it came from the president himself. >> i think it had to. the president was quick to tell us all, i informed all the people under me to provide security to these folks, secure that compound. we know for nine hours nothing happened, not one person came to their aid and this was on september 11 of all days in benghazi, libya, where the british had pulled out, the red cross closed their office. we were the only people left in benghazi. we've been attacked twice before. and who denied the request? we know three times they asked for assistance. i assumed it was the president himself who made the decision not to reinforce these people or someone else did which is very unnerving. >> brian: you're a military guy. you know a c.i.a. guy is trying to -- instead of seal is trying to light up a target, he

believes help is coming, on its way. he doesn't shoot that infrared light because he would like to have it or blind the assailant. why wasn't help on the way and do you believe the reports that we had no c 130s there and the command center, command unit wasn't equipped to help? >> i can't believe on september 11 there were no assets that could get there within nine hours. we don't need an investigation for the president to tell us did he know of a request for assistance? did he know of this to be reinforced and tell us why it was never reinforced. it was attacked in june. there was a statement by the state department that we will do an investigation on the june attack to find out how we were attacked in june so severely. where is that investigation? did the president know about the april and june attack? i can't believe he did not. i can't imagine any white house would let the president go out and in the public and not know about an attack. so how did it become a death trap after the attack?

why did the president send out susan rice and i assume the white house did, to start a narrative that so disconnected from the facts? answer these questions, mr. president. >> brian: sooner or later he will, and you and john mccain will observe a -- deserve a lot of the credit for keeping this story live. thank you very much. it's a very difficult day. >> thank you inasmuch i hope you're right. i hope he ans the questions. >> brian: he has to. >> steve: you would think so, wouldn't you? >> brian: i would think so. >> gretchen: there will be hearing, but they're on november 15, after the election. coming up next, the group aarp angering a lot of seniors campaigning in favor of obamacare in the backlash so bad, it's attracting some celebrity attention. from chuck woolery, and he's with us next. good morning, chuck. >> steve: and if you thought riding the storm out in your house was bad, imagine riding it out on a cruise ship with 30, 40, 50-foot waves. that's right. some ships are still stuck miles offshore without a clear path home. we'll talk to one of the passengers in the middle of the atlantic ocean on this tuesday

morning.

>> gretchen: 44 minutes past the top of the hour. the biggest story, hurricane sandy triggering a massive fire burning out of control in breezy point, queens, new york. at least 50 homes have burned to the ground there. joining us live from the scene, reporter stacy. have you been able to get any closer to the actual scene of this devastation? >> well, good morning to you. the sun just kind of starting to come out here, light coming up. things are not look good. 50 homes have burned to the ground on breezy point, probably about a mile back from where we're standing and it's been hard for us to go back and get a

look at the devastation because those burned homes are surrounded by feet of water. there was massive flooding as well. so overall, a very tough situation out here. the good news is, at this point firefighters only believe that there were two minor injuries in all of this, although they have yet to go into all of the burned homes. at this point the assumption that just two people injured, which is pretty phenomenal considering all devastation out here. gretchen? >> gretchen: thanks for keeping us up on that story. let's go to steve. >> steve: thanks. the group aarp is supposed to defend our nation's seniors in a nonpartisan way. that's what they tell us. one problem, the group campaigned in favor of obamacare when most seniors said no. the fallout so bad, it's atracking some celebrity attention, game show host chuck woolery is the spokesperson for generation america, which is the largest conservative alternative to aarp. he joins us this morning from austin, texas. good morning to you.

>> thank you, steve. it's nice to be with you this morning. how are you? >> steve: doing fine, thank you very much. a lot of people, they've seen the commercials and think aarp is nonpartisan. and you say absolutely not. and in fact, when health care was being passed in the congress, they were -- there was a connection between aarp and the white house. trying to get it passed, right? >> yeah. the rand and nancy la manned or barry rand ceo of aarp and deputy chief of staff of the white house, and nancy laman, all coordinated everything. we have 70 e-mails to prove it on our -- if you go to generationamerica.org, we have a section that's all for this. it's really to inform seniors more than anything else. what they did is absolutely disgusting, saying they're nonpartisan because they are not nonpartisan. if it were not for aarp, and the pressure that was put on senator

nelson by barry rand and all of these other people, the ceo of aarp, this health care bill would never have passed. he was the 60th vote. they pressured him. they robo called, they coordinated all this with the white house in order to do it and then they occasionally sent out an e-mail and say look, we need to keep our distance because our members really don't like it when we're partisan. since we're supposed to be a nonpartisan group, so they really did this -- nobody knew about it. we were able to get these through insiders at aarp and also from freedom of information act. >> steve: chuck, let's look at one of the e-mail. this apparently israeli from the senior vice president at aarp. quote, we need barry rand to go meet with ben nelson, the nebraska representative, personally and just lay it on the line. we'll be with you. we will protect you, but if you kill this bill, seniors will never forget. we are at 50, meaning 50 votes in the senate.

we have to have him. he wound up being the 60th vote. at the time -- at the time, chuck, aarp claimed seniors were in favor of obamacare, but you say that seniors were actually opposed to it 14 to one? >> 14 to one on the calls, like 97% that were against it. and aarp went ahead and just pushed this thing through anyway. it literally -- it would not be a law today if it were not for aarp. it just wouldn't be. all we're trying to do is inform seniors. if you're going to make a decision, then at least have the information and have the fair information and have the truth to know where you make your decision. aarp, they're the gorilla in the room. they're billions and billions of dollars. they're not going to be happy with what i'm saying right now. i'm going to get blow back on this, i'm sure. >> steve: so what you're vague is with the big election coming up, people need to know that if you don't like the health care

reform act, affordable care act, a vote for president obama would be a vote to keep that in business. chuck woolery. >> that's exactly right. >> steve: the legendary game show guy joining us frommance, texas. thank you very much. >> thank you so much, steve. >> steve: straight ahead on this tuesday morning, there is one cruise ship still out at sea right now. so how did they manage to survive getting slammed with 40-foot waves? up next, a passenger who is stuck on that ship right now. first, let's check in with martha mccallum for what's happening at the top of the hour. >> good morning, steve. and good morning, everybody. we have ongoing fires flooding and now a rising tide that is set to peak at 9:00 a.m., just a few minutes away this morning. power outages across seven states. we've got updates coming in from emergency management this morning throughout the next couple of hours. brand-new pictures are also coming in to our news room that we want to show to you. bill and i will join you at the

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>> steve: more extreme video. check out new video coming in right now. this is a look driving through the flooding in ocean city, maryland. look at that. that's a street. not a stream. and in forked river, new jersey, day break showing damage and flooding there. residents needing a boat to get around on this tuesday morning. >> gretchen: you have seen the video of a cruise ship being slammed with a giant wall of water. so how did the ship and the passengers survive when something like this happens? you're about to find out. maureen is a passenger award the norwegian gem and joins us by

phone with an update on how they're doing out there. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: so you were on board the ship, where are you? >> in the middle of the ocean, i believe. >> gretchen: so you are trying to come back into new york city, but you're unable to do that right now. >> yes. >> gretchen: what is the prognosis of you being able to get back here? >> we were supposed to be back yesterday, on monday. the trip was cut short by a day. we left on the 20th and supposed to come back on the 29th and we're still in the ocean. the ship is good, you know. there is no injuries.

it's side to side bouncy, you know. everything else is good. >> gretchen: you say the waves are 15 to 20 feet and weigh saw that video. i don't know if that was exactly from your ship or not. >> yes. >> gretchen: what kind of waves are you taking on at this point in time? >> right now they're probably five to ten feet because it's not as bad as it was during the night. literally i was rolling side to side, up and down. how bad it was. >> gretchen: i understand you're with your husband and your father. is everyone on the ship okay at this point? >> yeah. the only thing is that the leader came down yesterday. they're assisting all the handicapped people up and down the stairs in wheelchairs and that. >> gretchen: all right. i know one of your concerns is that the ship could run out of

food if it eventually can't get into a port here in new york or nearby. maureen, a passenger aboard the ship stranded in the ocean right now. thanks for your time. safe travels. >> thank you. >> gretchen: more "fox & friends," two minutes away i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely, but for many, it gets skin clearer fast, within 2 months, and keeps it clearer up to 9 months. [ male announcer ] because enbrel®, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections,

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